Make /process/web overwrite behavior configurable instead of always replacing existing collections. Reasoning behind it: When trying to import all URLs of a website using the API, I want them all to end up in the same knowledge base. Currently that was not possible because every new request would replace the knowledge base (collection) instead of just adding the content of the new URL to the collection.
Note to first-time contributors: Please open a discussion post in Discussions to discuss your idea/fix with the community before creating a pull request, and describe your changes before submitting a pull request.
This is to ensure large feature PRs are discussed with the community first, before starting work on it. If the community does not want this feature or it is not relevant for Open WebUI as a project, it can be identified in the discussion before working on the feature and submitting the PR.
Before submitting, make sure you've checked the following:
Target branch: Verify that the pull request targets the dev branch. PRs targeting main will be immediately closed.
Description: Provide a concise description of the changes made in this pull request down below.
Changelog: Ensure a changelog entry following the format of Keep a Changelog is added at the bottom of the PR description.
Dependencies: Are there any new or upgraded dependencies? If so, explain why, update the changelog/docs, and include any compatibility notes. Actually run the code/function that uses updated library to ensure it doesn't crash.
Testing: Perform manual tests to verify the implemented fix/feature works as intended AND does not break any other functionality. Include reproducible steps to demonstrate the issue before the fix. Test edge cases (URL encoding, HTML entities, types). Take this as an opportunity to make screenshots of the feature/fix and include them in the PR description.
Agentic AI Code: Confirm this Pull Request is not written by any AI Agent or has at least gone through additional human review AND manual testing. If any AI Agent is the co-author of this PR, it may lead to immediate closure of the PR.
Code review: Have you performed a self-review of your code, addressing any coding standard issues and ensuring adherence to the project's coding standards?
Design & Architecture: Prefer smart defaults over adding new settings; use local state for ephemeral UI logic. Open a Discussion for major architectural or UX changes.
Git Hygiene: Keep PRs atomic (one logical change). Clean up commits and rebase on dev to ensure no unrelated commits (e.g. from main) are included. Push updates to the existing PR branch instead of closing and reopening.
Title Prefix: To clearly categorize this pull request, prefix the pull request title using one of the following:
BREAKING CHANGE: Significant changes that may affect compatibility
build: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies
ci: Changes to our continuous integration processes or workflows
chore: Refactor, cleanup, or other non-functional code changes
docs: Documentation update or addition
feat: Introduces a new feature or enhancement to the codebase
fix: Bug fix or error correction
i18n: Internationalization or localization changes
perf: Performance improvement
refactor: Code restructuring for better maintainability, readability, or scalability
style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc.)
test: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
WIP: Work in progress, a temporary label for incomplete or ongoing work
Changelog Entry
Description
Make /process/web overwrite behavior configurable instead of always replacing existing collections. Reasoning behind it: When trying to import all URLs of a website using the API, I want them all to end up in the same knowledge base. Currently that was not possible because every new request would replace the knowledge base (collection) instead of just adding the content of the new URL to the collection.
Changed
Made POST /api/v1/retrieval/process/web respect a request-body overwrite flag instead of always forcing overwrite.
Updated frontend retrieval API helper to pass overwrite (default true) so existing behavior remains unchanged unless explicitly set.
Added
Added OpenAPI/Swagger documentation for the overwrite field on ProcessUrlForm.
Added backend tests covering default overwrite=true and explicit overwrite=false behavior.
Contributor License Agreement
By submitting this pull request, I confirm that I have read and fully agree to the Contributor License Agreement (CLA), and I am providing my contributions under its terms.
Note
Deleting the CLA section will lead to immediate closure of your PR and it will not be merged in.
🔄 This issue represents a GitHub Pull Request. It cannot be merged through Gitea due to API limitations.
## 📋 Pull Request Information
**Original PR:** https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/pull/21613
**Author:** [@jfahrenkrug](https://github.com/jfahrenkrug)
**Created:** 2/19/2026
**Status:** ❌ Closed
**Base:** `dev` ← **Head:** `jfahrenkrug/make_process_url_overwrite_optional`
---
### 📝 Commits (1)
- [`97fffeb`](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/commit/97fffeb5e35ce3afaa3f3a8c970d0dcd83ee23bc) feat: Add ability to not overwrite the whole collection when processing URLs
### 📊 Changes
**3 files changed** (+92 additions, -4 deletions)
<details>
<summary>View changed files</summary>
📝 `backend/open_webui/routers/retrieval.py` (+10 -2)
➕ `backend/open_webui/test/apps/webui/routers/test_retrieval_process_web.py` (+78 -0)
📝 `src/lib/apis/retrieval/index.ts` (+4 -2)
</details>
### 📄 Description
Make /process/web overwrite behavior configurable instead of always replacing existing collections. Reasoning behind it: When trying to import all URLs of a website using the API, I want them all to end up in the same knowledge base. Currently that was not possible because every new request would replace the knowledge base (collection) instead of just adding the content of the new URL to the collection.
See https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/issues/21336
<!--
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2. Do NOT delete the CLA section at the bottom. It is required for the bot to accept your PR.
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# Pull Request Checklist
### Note to first-time contributors: Please open a discussion post in [Discussions](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/discussions) to discuss your idea/fix with the community before creating a pull request, and describe your changes before submitting a pull request.
This is to ensure large feature PRs are discussed with the community first, before starting work on it. If the community does not want this feature or it is not relevant for Open WebUI as a project, it can be identified in the discussion before working on the feature and submitting the PR.
**Before submitting, make sure you've checked the following:**
- [X] **Target branch:** Verify that the pull request targets the `dev` branch. **PRs targeting `main` will be immediately closed.**
- [X] **Description:** Provide a concise description of the changes made in this pull request down below.
- [X] **Changelog:** Ensure a changelog entry following the format of [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/) is added at the bottom of the PR description.
- [X] **Documentation:** Add docs in [Open WebUI Docs Repository](https://github.com/open-webui/docs). Document user-facing behavior, environment variables, public APIs/interfaces, or deployment steps: See https://github.com/open-webui/docs/pull/1094
- [X] **Dependencies:** Are there any new or upgraded dependencies? If so, explain why, update the changelog/docs, and include any compatibility notes. Actually run the code/function that uses updated library to ensure it doesn't crash.
- [X] **Testing:** Perform manual tests to **verify the implemented fix/feature works as intended AND does not break any other functionality**. Include reproducible steps to demonstrate the issue before the fix. Test edge cases (URL encoding, HTML entities, types). Take this as an opportunity to **make screenshots of the feature/fix and include them in the PR description**.
- [X] **Agentic AI Code:** Confirm this Pull Request is **not written by any AI Agent** or has at least **gone through additional human review AND manual testing**. If any AI Agent is the co-author of this PR, it may lead to immediate closure of the PR.
- [X] **Code review:** Have you performed a self-review of your code, addressing any coding standard issues and ensuring adherence to the project's coding standards?
- [X] **Design & Architecture:** Prefer smart defaults over adding new settings; use local state for ephemeral UI logic. Open a Discussion for major architectural or UX changes.
- [X] **Git Hygiene:** Keep PRs atomic (one logical change). Clean up commits and rebase on `dev` to ensure no unrelated commits (e.g. from `main`) are included. Push updates to the existing PR branch instead of closing and reopening.
- [X] **Title Prefix:** To clearly categorize this pull request, prefix the pull request title using one of the following:
- **BREAKING CHANGE**: Significant changes that may affect compatibility
- **build**: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies
- **ci**: Changes to our continuous integration processes or workflows
- **chore**: Refactor, cleanup, or other non-functional code changes
- **docs**: Documentation update or addition
- **feat**: Introduces a new feature or enhancement to the codebase
- **fix**: Bug fix or error correction
- **i18n**: Internationalization or localization changes
- **perf**: Performance improvement
- **refactor**: Code restructuring for better maintainability, readability, or scalability
- **style**: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc.)
- **test**: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
- **WIP**: Work in progress, a temporary label for incomplete or ongoing work
# Changelog Entry
### Description
Make /process/web overwrite behavior configurable instead of always replacing existing collections. Reasoning behind it: When trying to import all URLs of a website using the API, I want them all to end up in the same knowledge base. Currently that was not possible because every new request would replace the knowledge base (collection) instead of just adding the content of the new URL to the collection.
### Changed
- Made POST /api/v1/retrieval/process/web respect a request-body overwrite flag instead of always forcing overwrite.
- Updated frontend retrieval API helper to pass overwrite (default true) so existing behavior remains unchanged unless explicitly set.
### Added
- Added OpenAPI/Swagger documentation for the overwrite field on ProcessUrlForm.
- Added backend tests covering default overwrite=true and explicit overwrite=false behavior.
---
### Contributor License Agreement
<!--
🚨 DO NOT DELETE THE TEXT BELOW 🚨
Keep the "Contributor License Agreement" confirmation text intact.
Deleting it will trigger the CLA-Bot to INVALIDATE your PR.
-->
By submitting this pull request, I confirm that I have read and fully agree to the [Contributor License Agreement (CLA)](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/CONTRIBUTOR_LICENSE_AGREEMENT), and I am providing my contributions under its terms.
> [!NOTE]
> Deleting the CLA section will lead to immediate closure of your PR and it will not be merged in.
---
<sub>🔄 This issue represents a GitHub Pull Request. It cannot be merged through Gitea due to API limitations.</sub>
Blocking a user prevents them from interacting with repositories, such as opening or commenting on pull requests or issues. Learn more about blocking a user.
📋 Pull Request Information
Original PR: https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/pull/21613
Author: @jfahrenkrug
Created: 2/19/2026
Status: ❌ Closed
Base:
dev← Head:jfahrenkrug/make_process_url_overwrite_optional📝 Commits (1)
97fffebfeat: Add ability to not overwrite the whole collection when processing URLs📊 Changes
3 files changed (+92 additions, -4 deletions)
View changed files
📝
backend/open_webui/routers/retrieval.py(+10 -2)➕
backend/open_webui/test/apps/webui/routers/test_retrieval_process_web.py(+78 -0)📝
src/lib/apis/retrieval/index.ts(+4 -2)📄 Description
Make /process/web overwrite behavior configurable instead of always replacing existing collections. Reasoning behind it: When trying to import all URLs of a website using the API, I want them all to end up in the same knowledge base. Currently that was not possible because every new request would replace the knowledge base (collection) instead of just adding the content of the new URL to the collection.
See https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/issues/21336
Pull Request Checklist
Note to first-time contributors: Please open a discussion post in Discussions to discuss your idea/fix with the community before creating a pull request, and describe your changes before submitting a pull request.
This is to ensure large feature PRs are discussed with the community first, before starting work on it. If the community does not want this feature or it is not relevant for Open WebUI as a project, it can be identified in the discussion before working on the feature and submitting the PR.
Before submitting, make sure you've checked the following:
devbranch. PRs targetingmainwill be immediately closed.devto ensure no unrelated commits (e.g. frommain) are included. Push updates to the existing PR branch instead of closing and reopening.Changelog Entry
Description
Make /process/web overwrite behavior configurable instead of always replacing existing collections. Reasoning behind it: When trying to import all URLs of a website using the API, I want them all to end up in the same knowledge base. Currently that was not possible because every new request would replace the knowledge base (collection) instead of just adding the content of the new URL to the collection.
Changed
Added
Contributor License Agreement
By submitting this pull request, I confirm that I have read and fully agree to the Contributor License Agreement (CLA), and I am providing my contributions under its terms.
🔄 This issue represents a GitHub Pull Request. It cannot be merged through Gitea due to API limitations.